Alright lads and lasses, time to finish up our little look at the newest ships for Fantasy Flights Star Wars: X-Wing, the Tie Interceptor.
Opening this box will reveal not many goodies, but a heap ton of pilots as well as another new Experienced Pilot upgrade.
New Spikey Bits’ Writer Super Kaiju wrote this review article on the most interesting fighters from Star Wars RoTJ, the Tie Interceptor.
Starting off with the Pilots, we have a skill 1 Alpha Squadron Pilot, a skill 3 Avenger Squadron Pilot, a skill 4 Saber Squadron Pilot. Those are your basic guys, rounding out, we got three named guys as well. “Fel’s Wrath”, the skill 5 pilot. Turr Phennir with a not to shabby 7 skill. And drum roll here, another skill 9, yep, 9, Soontir Fel.
Upgrade wise will see two Experienced Pilots. Deadeye returns here as with the A-Wing, and new with this Elusiveness.
Now the first thing I noticed, and you might too, is that these ships seem to be here to fill the less then stellar offensive gap for the Imperials. Since both existing ships for the Imperials only have 2 shots base, they have to rely on the use of missiles to get up there with the massive damage, or spam the ever loving poo out of some cheap ships to compare to the Rebels mighty X-wings blasters or the Y-Wings massive torpedo spam! With these having three shots, you’ll start seeing some damage put on those less then maneuverable Rebel ships, and perhaps even hurt the Imperials when we got a mirror match. Rest of the stat line is similar to the rest of the Imperials, with three agility and three hull points. Still no shields though, so they might just come off as glass cannons if all goes bad. But like the A-wing, if the situation allows, these babies do come with the new boost ability.
Lets start with the Upgrades this time since there;s so many pilots to talk about. Deadeye, we discussed that in the A-wing review, so to sum it up its nice for a 1 point upgrade. Elusiveness though, not to sure if this is awesome sauce or bleh pudding. Forcing your opponent to reroll one attack die isn’t that bad. Getting stressed to do it is. Plus its no guarantee that it’ll even prevent any damage. But if used right it can possibly prevent a ship loss. But then again, if you’re already stressed, its all but useless. Not sure its worth 2 points, maybe a 1 point upgrade.
The no namers points cost are a little high for just an extra attack and boost when compared to the Tie Fighter or Tie Advance, but not to bad that you’ll have to break the bank to just take one. The named bunch though, their abilities make up for their higher point cost.
Lets start with “Fel’s Wrath”. No, I don’t know why his name is like that, ask Wookiepedia. Regardless, his ability is a nice “SCREW YOU SIR” to your enemy. When he dies, he doesn’t die instantly. Instead it blows up at the end of the combat phase, meaning you can still get some shots off before you go out in a blaze of glory. Next up Turr Phennir has a very interesting ability. After an attack a free boost or barrel roll? Why yes, I think I’ll have some of that cake. Pew Pew now no retaliation or hell, fire and slam into your target (if he survived!). Great way to annoy and be offensive. Finally we have Soontir Fel (perhaps the man with the Wrath?), who has a very nice ability as well. I abused this guy during the Kessel Run (I was in second during the finals, opponent chose to play Rebels) and his awesome “Oh, I’m stressed? Least I get a free FOCUS!”. Not as good as the A-Wing Pilot Tycho Celchu and his action while stressed, but nothing to scoff at either.
When looking at everything, if i were to run with a Tie Interceptor or two, I’d more then likely take Turr Phennir. His ability to be offensive then get out of the line of fire if positioning is right is pretty silly. His 7 skill letting me fire before most too. Oh yea, he’s nice. Throw Marksmanship on him and you got a nasty bit of fire power that is pretty damn hard to hit. Zoom in, use an evade action, fire and then barrel roll out of your arc? Or slam head first into a ship removing one guys fire from the equation. Its real hard to ignore that. Then maybe throw in a lot Alpha Squadron Pilot, mix in a couple ties, and If points allow a Advance. Preferably Vader there.
All in all this expansion pack is a little lack luster compared to the other four coming out, but is by no means bad. And I’m sure this ship will make a fine addition to your fleet. Just hope they can actually shoot down the Rebels before they blow up the Death Star this time!
Welcome to X-Wing, enjoy your stay. Checkout our sweet video un-boxing for the legendary Slave One below, and be sure to read our other Star Wars Tactics Articles. -MBG
